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Napoleon HernandezNapoleon Hernandez
SatelliittiMuokkaa reittiä
Asuu: New York, United States of America Lue lisää New York, United States of America
  • Spain 2023
    Päivä 12

    Alcazar de Segovia

    15. heinäkuuta 2023, Espanja ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    It was fairly late when we left San Ildefonso grounds after the fountain show, and we headed back to Segovia to see the Alcazar. The building is on the top of a hill inside Segovia, and Oliver fell asleep as we started driving. When we got there, Karina decided to stay back with him, and so Nadia and Napoleon went in with only 40 minutes to visit.

    The building itself is impressive, with an amazing view of the entire city. It was used to house the army that was charged with protecting the city, and the building houses a collection of armors and weapons. The building itself has some moorish influences. We particularly liked the towers on the outside of the building, which turned out to be an inspiration for Walt Disney's castle.

    Although the visit was rushed, it was totally worth it. The art, the views, and the memory of running around trying to capture the moment in images to share with Karina will stay with us long after we go back to New York.    Lue lisää

  • Spain 2023
    Päivä 12

    Palace of San Ildefonso Farm

    15. heinäkuuta 2023, Espanja ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Coming into Segovia, we left our luggage at the inn and drove another 20 minutes into San Ildefonso, where one can visit the palace that was used by the royal family as a summer residence. The palace itself wasn't that impressive, with only a few interesting items along the way (in a way, the arrangement of the rooms reminded us of the European furniture collection at the Met).

    What was fun, though, was visiting the gardens, which holds more than forty fountains within its walls. Turns out we arrived at the time that the garden offers a show with the fountains and we had a blast! (literally and figuratively). During the show, guards of the garden led us to four different fountain plazas within the garden. The water reaches a height of almost 30 meters in one of them, and the water reaches to the audience! Nadia was really happy getting wet during the show, but Oliver got scared by the water a couple of times. Napoleon was holding Oliver on his back during the fourth show when the water reached its peak height and washed their back out of the blue! They started running further away from the fountain but couldn't escape from getting fully drenched by it.    Lue lisää

  • Spain 2023
    Päivä 11

    Aguilar de Campoo

    14. heinäkuuta 2023, Espanja ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    The trip to Lagos de Covadonga made us reconsider our decision to head into Picos de Europa with a car rental. The road is very narrow at times, and one has to figure out how to handle incoming traffic, usually by having to make maneuvers with only inches of spare room at the edge of the road. So we changed the plan and decided to head towards Segovia/Madrid earlier, and that way, we wouldn't have to pack too much driving in a single day but split into two parts.

    We decided to stay at a nice hotel into Aguilar de Campoo, midway, between Covadonga and Segovia. This town was a pleasant surprise in many respects. When we walked around, we found it to be quaint and picturesque, built with a medieval wall (pit included) and a central plaza.

    Since the place where we wanted to have dinner was full, we headed to a nearby Italian place as option B, with very low expectations about having good Italian food in Spain. However, we were blown away by the dinner. We had one of the most delicious pizzas we have ever had all while enjoying tinto de verano and a nice caprese salad as well. Nadia ended up almost eating a whole pie herself, and even Karina, who was not hungry, ended up getting four slices as well.

    Coming back into the hotel, we took a very needed shower and slept to continue our way into Segovia.    Lue lisää

  • Spain 2023
    Päivä 11

    Lagos de Covadonga

    14. heinäkuuta 2023, Espanja ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    The Covadonga Lakes is a beautiful place located about 20 minutes driving from Covadonga. The lakes were created from glaciers that melted after the last ice age and created a beautiful, breathtaking scenery in the midst of the mountains.

    A good portion of the area around the lakes is owned by local farmers, and there are plenty of cows and bulls walking around the natural pasture. There are two lakes, and there is an elevated hill between the two that allows for a full sight.

    We were somewhat tired from the last few days and didn't want to overexert ourselves going around the trails. We mostly stayed close to the upper lake and to the elevated sightseeing place as we absorbed the views. We got a little snack on the only restaurant in the lakes before heading down, and we got one last fabada at the local restaurant as we were leaving Covadonga and continuing the trip.    Lue lisää

  • Spain 2023
    Päivä 10

    Covadonga

    13. heinäkuuta 2023, Espanja ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    The next stop for us was Covadonga, a town with a registered population of 58 right into the mountain area called Picos de Europa. The town is home to the famous Covadonga Virgin, which according to historical record help Visigoths to push back Arabs from the area in 722 under the leadership of Pelayo, who prayed to the image of the Virgin held within the cave system. The battle arguably initiated the creation of the modern Spanish state as it was the first battle where Christians were able to defeat Arabs.

    The town itself is beautiful, built right on the mountain with trails that follow a river that seeps through the rock and comes all the way down. The vegetation is made of forests, ferns, and moss and is very relaxing. Below the Virgin Sanctuary, there is a famous 7- armed fountain that, according to legend, will help whoever drinks water from its seven arms to find love within a year. With Karina and Napo set and Nadia not willing to take the water, we didn't get to try it out.

    The town is mostly made of hotels, restaurants, and rural houses that are built around the Covadonga Basílica. Walking its streets at night is magical, and it has a different experience from visiting the town during the day.

    From a culinary perspective, we found here two traditional foods from Asturias: fabada and cachopo. Fabada is a dish made with broad beans cooked with a bit of chorizo, morcilla, and a piece of pig skin. It is absolutely delicious and fulfilling. Cachopo, on the other hand, is a dish made from veal filets, where two of them are put together and filled with goat cheese and ham, and finally breaded and fried. The cachopo is not for the faint of the heart as a single order weighs almost 1.5 kilograms and can be shared with up to 6 people. This was the only time in Spain that we simply couldn't finish our food although we wanted to.

    Covadonga was also the first time where we had to get two different rooms, as the rural house where we stayed had only rooms for 2 people each. Since Nadia wanted to stay with Oliver, we allowed them to stay on the room upstairs, and we had to say they knew how to behave. We had one of the best nights of sleep in the town and took breakfast the next day from Bea, the house owner. From there, she let us know that unless we had property on the area of the lakes, we wouldn't be allowed to travel by car there, and our options were a cab service or a bus. Since the cab traveled further into the area and would drop us very close to the upper lake, we decided to take the cab service and spend the morning at Covadonga Lakes.    Lue lisää

  • Spain 2023
    Päivä 10

    Parque Natural del Carbaceno

    13. heinäkuuta 2023, Espanja ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    The Carbaceno Natural Park is a unique concept that we had never seen before. The park is a combination of a natural reserve and a zoo, but not in the traditional sense. In this park, the animals have very large expanses of land where they can walk around, with some spaces being as large as 1 kilometer squared. The park was built on top of an old mine and is also an example of how some human-made structures can be recycled to give a bit back in terms of natural spaces.

    The park has some unique species, including some animals close to extinction, like White Rhinoceros. We saw a pack of deers moving around as elephants were walking nearby and a very cute pack of brown bears. The park has a funicular system that we used to visit several areas and get amazing views of the animals from high up.

    We also saw several venomous snakes that the park has from around the world, including royal cobras, green and black mambas, and spitting snakes.

    To top it all, the park has a show involving hunting birds. The show lasts an hour and showcases different birds around the world. The trainers would leave the birds free, and they would set up baits to show how falcons kill on the wild. It was an amazing show as some of the birds would fly just a meter or two in front of us, with one of them even brushing Napoleon's head, and we got to see firsthand how amazing these creatures are.    Lue lisää

  • Spain 2023
    Päivä 9

    Casa Rural Areitz-Soroa

    12. heinäkuuta 2023, Espanja ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We drove about an hour and a half before we reached the place where we decided to stay, a cute rural house outside Bilbao. The road close to the rural house was very narrow, and we drove on top of a very small get sturdy Roman Bridge built in the year 300 at the expense of Karina's nerves while driving. (Everyone here loves roman bridges! They are more trustworthy than modern ones).

    The house is run by Ion and Sonia, who have spent thirty years of their lives on the project of building a self-sustaining house. Apart from hosting people on the property, they hold education sessions for kids to teach them how to minimize their impact on the environment while doing some fun activities like having them cook their own bread and get apple juice. In our case, we got to enjoy the natural setting of the farm, and the kids got to see from a fist hand perspective cows, chickens, pigs, and rabbits in the midst of a light rain. Nadia was also very happy since we all got to pet a rabbit thanks to Sonia. 🐇


    Dinner was a bit difficult as we were tired and yet had to drive 20 minutes to the nearest town. Although they would not serve dinner during weekdays, the restaurant decided to graciously make dinner for us. We drank natural cider (and they explained to us that we weren't supposed to let it rest but drink it as it had air bubbles from serving it).

    The discovery of the day in terms of food was entrecot, which is a very tender and juicy beef cut taken from between the 7th and 8th rib. We really liked it and hope to be able to tell our butcher to cut it for us once we get back to New York!    Lue lisää

  • Spain 2023
    Päivä 9

    San Millan de la Cogolla

    12. heinäkuuta 2023, Espanja ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We were starving by the time we came down from Suso and found a little tavern in town, very close to Yuso. We had lunch within its beautiful garden and got a bit of a second wind. The monastery was unfortunately closed at the time we were leaving, and we could only take pictures from the facade. What is interesting of this monastery is that it held the earliest manuscript in primitive Castilian, making this area the place where modern Spanish was born as a language.

    We decided to not wait until the monastery was open in the afternoon and headed right into our next destination as we were hoping to have Oliver and Nadia interact with farm animals in the rural house we were staying in next.    Lue lisää

  • Spain 2023
    Päivä 9

    Suso Monastery

    12. heinäkuuta 2023, Espanja ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We had overall an easy 8th day in Spain and yet one that was memorable. Our only target in terms of sightseeing was visiting San Millan de la Colguera, one of the most ancient sites in all of Spain. San Millan is associated with two monasteries called Yuso and Suso, which comes from the Latin words for "low" and "high," respectively.

    Our GPS set the route to visit Suso first, and we ended up going up a very narrow road up a mountain. We ended up in a clearing within a forest and decided to continue afoot and avoid damage to the car.

    This hike ended up being one of the most memorable parts of our trip. We loved being able to spend time as a family!
    We were mostly alone up the hill and got in beautiful views of the countryside. We rushed a bit coming up because the GPS said we had 40 minutes before the monastery was closed. Once we got there we realized that we should have visited Yuso first and gotten into a bus to come up the trail. We found a tour guide just outside the monastery ruins, and she graciously agreed to let us join her last group, although we were supposed to get a ticket in the lower monastery.

    What followed was a fascinating explanation about the history of the monastery. It was built very early on, and it started with a hermit who was known for his ability to heal people, taking over a cave on the hill as living quarters. The monastery was built around the cave and exhibited different styles of architecture as the building expanded and was occupied by different groups. We saw a set of 6 arches that showed the change from romanic to moorish inspired motifs on the same structure. It is impressive to think of people traveling through this land long before the invention of modern technology and occupying these spaces. In a rather comical note, the building also has bricks full of dogs' pawprints, which were the result of people preparing the building materials on site with dogs running around.

    After the visit, we headed back to our car, this time more leisurely. However, Oliver was walking close to a fence when he accidentally fell down a small creek. He didn't hurt himself but got really scared, and we carried him halfway before he said he wanted to be brave and strong and keep walking by himself. Once we got to the car, we headed down the hill into San Millan.    Lue lisää

  • Spain 2023
    Päivä 8

    Monastery of Nuestra Señora de Valvanera

    11. heinäkuuta 2023, Espanja ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Finally, we have arrived at our stay tonight: the monastery of Valvanera. Located deep in La Rioja, the monastery is the only sign of civilization several kilometers around. This monastery has existed since the year 990. The sight is breathtaking and a huge contrast from San Fermin. We went from being in a party to having the space and time to decompress and having a welcoming rest. The silence was also appreciated when compared to the loud music and drums in Pamplona.

    We arrived around 5 and crashed... well, mostly the adults. The kids decided to get some "me time" with their electronics and decompress a bit. The only restaurant around in the area is one that is part of the monaster, and we had a traditional dinner. Napoleon tried lamb for the first time and actually liked it, while everyone agreed that the deserts were outstanding. The monastery is famous for its honey production, and it didn't disappoint. The honey is sweet and has a unique flavor that goes really well with yogurt or light creams.    Lue lisää

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